Inter-Ethnic Conflicts and their Impact on National Development, Integration and Social Cohesion: A Study of the Nawuri-Gonja Conflict in Northern Ghana
Cletus Kwaku Mbowura

Abstract
For many years Northern Region of Ghana has been in a state of turmoil and atrophy due to intermittent interethnic conflicts over a broad layer of issues. In 1991 and 1992, Kpandai and its surrounding areas in present-day Kpandai District in Northern Ghana were enmeshed in inter-ethnic conflict between the Gonja and the Nawuri over allodial land rights. Apart from the loss of human lives and property, the war disrupted economic and sociocultural activities, and caused internal displacement of people with its attendant social and economic repercussions. For close to two decades after the inter-ethnic conflict, the rippling effects of the war continued to be pronounced. This paper discusses the outcomes and impact of the Nawuri-Gonja conflict, and argues that its outcomes and impact were devastating and rippling on rural life and society, and that they posed a challenge to national development, national integration and social cohesion.

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